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Wednesday, October 24, 2018

I had a great time recently appearing on the Frank Beckmann Show on WJR.Frank is a conservative broadcasting legend, so it was nice to chat with him for a couple segments!We mostly discussed Haley Stevens, the Democrat Congressional candidate in the 11th, who has inflated her resume regarding the auto bailout. Stevens is running against Lena Epstein, a small business owner from the metro Detroit area who co-chaired President Trump's 2016 Michigan campaign. You can check out the interview below if you'd like!

__________________________________________________________________Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

Dinesh D'Souza is returning to the Great Lakes State for an appearance at Michigan State University on November 1st.D'Souza will be addressing historical issues, as well as how conservatives can fight back against liberal bias in schools, as part of his "#FakeHistoryDebunked" tour. The event is hosted by MSU's Young Americans For Freedom organization.D'Souza, who was pardoned by President Trump earlier this year, recently released his latest documentary, "Death Of A Nation."The event begins at 8 in room 101 of North Kedzie Hall. The speech is open to the public, and tickets are available HERE.

According to a statement from YAF on a Facebook page for the event:"Have your professors been lying to you? Dinesh D'Souza will be on campus November 1st to talk about #FakeHistory and to challenge the liberal arguments presented in high school and college classrooms.

Those with free tickets can get access to the venue starting at 7:30PM. However, any unclaimed seats will be given away on a first-come, first-serve basis at 7:50PM."__________________________________________________________________Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

The Michigan Democratic Party, after recently attacking State Rep. Jeff Noble for visiting his sick wife in the hospital, is at it again: the Dems are now going after State House candidate Christine Barnes, posting her Social Security number in a public ad!The incident is essentially the doxxing of a legislative candidate, bought and paid for- then promoted-by a major political party. Wow!

Barnes, an Eaton County Commissioner, is running to replace State Rep. Tom Barrett in a highly competitive race against Democrat Angela Witwer.Michigan Republican Party Chair Ron Weiser blasted the ad in a statement.“This is despicable,” Weiser said. “Christine Barnes is running for office to improve the lives of her fellow citizens, and the Michigan Democrat Party used all its resources to try to destroy hers. By releasing her Social Security number, they have broken the law and put Barnes’ identity and credit at risk. I call upon MDP to immediately pull this ad...Further, MDP owes Ms. Barnes an immediate apology.”

Barnes has filed a report with the Michigan State Police.

A press release from the Michigan Republican Party notes:

"Under Michigan law MDP employees face the following criminal penalties for violation of the Michigan Social Security Act:

Those who publicly display with knowledge that the person's conduct violates this act is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 93 days or a fine of not more than $1,000.00, or both. See MCL 445.86(1).

MDP is also civilly liable to Ms. Barnes under the following provision for violation of the Michigan Social Security Act:

(2) An individual may bring a civil action against a person who violates section 3 and may recover actual damages. If the person knowingly violates section 3, an individual may recover actual damages or $1,000.00, whichever is greater..."

Whether it was nefarious, or just more Dem incompetence, Chairman Weiser is right: the ad should be pulled immediately, and Brandon Dillon owes Barnes an apology.__________________________________________________________________Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

Private polling shows State Rep. Brandt Iden is now tied with his Democrat opponent, Western Michigan University Professor Alberta Griffin. Both candidates receive just under 50% support in one of the state's most watched races.It's a big swing for Iden from Griffin's nearly double digit lead in another poll just a few weeks ago.The development is disappointing news for Democrats hoping to flip the seat and take back the House. For Republicans, it seems to be yet another sign that the "Kavanaugh effect" is real, the "blue wave" is dead, and grassroots conservatives are fired up.Iden was a Trump delegate during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland and an early supporter of the President.It's unclear whether the Dems will double down and continue to spend money trying to take out Iden. That strategy has failed the last two election cycles, and it doesn't appear to be working this time, either. Valuable resources squandered on Griffin could help put other candidates in more competitive races over the top.

WMP is watching this race closely, stay tuned!__________________________________________________________________Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

Monday, October 15, 2018

11th Congressional District Democrat candidate Haley Stevens has not been truthful with voters about her role in the auto industry bailout.

In her first ad, she erroneously and passionately claimed that she was "chief of staff" to the entire bailout. Now Stevens is changing her story.

Evidently, Stevens was as much of a Chief of Staff to the Auto Bailout as fellow Dem Congressional candidate Matthew Longjohn is a Doctor, both #FakeNews.

In her new ad, she backtracks on that claim, saying she merely "worked" on the bailout.

Writing to the Jewish News recently, Stevens said she "Served as chief of staff on the Auto Task Force inside of the U.S. Treasury Department."

This is a far cry from being "chief of staff" of the entire auto bailout...

Documents show she was listed by the Treasury Department as a "special assistant" and a "confidential assistant." In a 2010 interview with American University Alumni Magazine, Stevens described her position as a confidential assistant and “chief of staff-oriented.”

Haley Stevens knows she hasn't been telling the truth to voters in the 11th, and she's quietly trying to cover her tracks.

Hopefully she won't get away with it...

Stevens faces Lena Epstein, a small business owner and former Co Chair of President Trump's historic 2016 Michigan campaign.

Epstein has real experience with auto industry related work, running an oil company with hundreds of millions in annual revenue, and around 200 employees.

Lena Epstein

__________________________________________________________________Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

Friday, October 12, 2018

Speaker of the House Tom Leonard continues to position himself as the Republican candidate most likely to win statewide in November.According to a new poll from Steve Mitchell of Mitchell Research and Communications, Leonard only trails unhinged radical leftist Dana Nessel by 1%.Here are the numbers:Dana Nessel 34%Tom Leonard 33%Lisa Gioia 9% (Libertarian)Chris Graveline 2% (Independent)The survey, conducted from September 30-October 7, polled nearly 700 likely voters. With the margin of error, Nessel and Leonard are basically tied.

Mitchell says Leonard is well positioned to win, because 10% of Republicans have yet to decide, and Gioia is drawing voters from Nessel. Leonard is also destroying Nessel with Independent voters by a 3:1 margin, perhaps because of headlines about Nessel continually verbally abusing her employees.Leonard thanked supporters in a Facebook statement."Thank you again for your continued support! Jenell, Hannah and I have been so blessed by so many of you," Leonard said. "Your volunteer hours, contributions, but most importantly, your prayers mean more than you know. (And they are working!) We are going to win this thing, but only because of your help. Let’s keep the momentum going!"__________________________________________________________________Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

"Schuette’s campaign said he did not know the origin of the video and does not recall the apparent interview it came from. But he watched it recently and responded late Wednesday before the Democratic group had published its version of the clip...

A spokesman for American Bridge said the group does not have any additional footage from the interview.

The clip was “sent to us via a file sharing service by someone who gave us an assumed name,” Zach Hudson told The Detroit News in an email. “We don’t know anything beyond what is in this video.”

The only place the video appears is the website Michigan Conservative News. It was allegedly posted in early July, but that has been disputed.

According to Gongwer:

"The video was posted to the miconservativenews.com website with a July 6 timestamp but a search of the Internet Archive, which last archived the website August 23, showed no evidence the article had been posted prior to August 23, meaning it had been backdated."

So, was it backdated, and only posted recently!?

Regardless, other things about the video don't add up.

-Michigan Conservative News is a strong pro Schuette website. Why would they EVER post this video?

-The video is uncategorized, despite multiple categories it could be classified into. This prevents the post from being linked with an indexed/archived parent page. Why?

-The video is the only post from the site that does not have a corresponding Facebook post. Why?

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

A *big league* thanks to Craig Mauger of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, and Joel Kurth from Bridge Magazine, for mentioning the role West Michigan Politics played in this crazy National Popular Vote story!

Also, thanks to Speaker Tom Leonard, who confirmed he will NEVER let National Popular Vote see the House floor!

"The trips first came to light in September when a conservative blogger wrote that two GOP lawmakers, the primary bill sponsors ‒ Kelly and Sen. David Hildenbrand, of Lowell ‒ may have attended the seminar in Hawaii...

Brandon Hall, the conservative blogger, alleged on his website West Michigan Politics that Hildenbrand, from Lowell, and Kelly, from Saginaw, were “believed to have attended” an August trip to Hawaii before sponsoring the legislation in September.

“Republican grassroots activists strongly oppose the legislation, as many believe in the Electoral College system our Constitution prescribes,” Hall warned at the time...

Multiple sources...confirmed that Rep. Jim Lilly, of Macatawa, attended; he declined comment for this report.

Then there is Hildenbrand, who along with Kelly was named by the blogger back in September. Approached inside Senate offices in Lansing, Hildenbrand said he wouldn’t respond to a story from a blogger, a reference to the West Michigan Politics report."

One can use many words to describe Dennis Lennox. I normally wouldn’t use ignorant as one of them, but his recent “commentary” on the state of the 2018 election and Republican prospects this fall was simply draw dropping.

Lennox actually has the guts to blame Calley for Attorney General Bill Schuette’s poor performance in the polls!Are you kidding me?Tough primaries make tough nominees. Remember, even Reagan didn’t follow his “11th Commandment” in the bruising primary battle with President Ford in 1976.

What should Calley have done, thrown Schuette a parade? Schuette has long faced problems with Independent voters because of medical marijuana, gay marriage, and other issues.

Schuette should thank Calley for making his secret luxury real estate empire in the Virgin Islands a June/July primary problem instead of a Brandon Dillon October surprise-assuming the MDP is competent enough to have uncovered it, which is debatable.

What brilliant solution does Dennis prescribe to stop Calley from running a campaign instead of a coronation?

He actually suggests interference from party leadership! Lennox wanted Michigan Republican Party Chair Ron Weiser to intervene and bail Schuette out.Lennox opines:"Gubernatorial nominee Bill Schuette is down against Democratic nominee Gretchen Whitmer, thanks in no small part to a bruising primary for the GOP nomination that saw Lieutenant Gov. Brian Calley throw everything and the kitchen sink at Schuette...

Just look at the primary election, where a more active chairman could have intervened and reduced the number of broadsides coming from Calley, who everyone knew was going to lose to Schuette. It was just a question of by how much would he lose."Excuse me? It’s not Chairman Weiser’s job to carry water for Bill Schuette, that’s laughable.We can debate what the role of a party chair should be, but it’s certainly not to help hand picked candidates run their campaigns.

With Whitmer headed for a win, it seems the scapegoating and half-assed blame games have already started , which is unfortunate.

It’s also worth mentioning that Schuette’s attempts at uniting the party have been lackluster at best, which certainly doesn’t help things.

Blaming Ron Weiser and Brian Calley for the fact Michigan voters are looking elsewhere after 8 years of Republican leadership is ignorant, short sighted, and completely ridiculous. It's also amusing he helped lead Tonya Schuitmaker's vicious attacks on Tom Leonard, but then complains the Gubernatorial primary was too rough... Derp!__________________________________________________________________Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

It becomes more apparent everyday that Dana Nessel is not mentally stable enough to be Michigan's Attorney General. The woman is nuts.After multiple staffers accused her of running an "abusive" and "toxic" campaign where they were subjected to brutal verbal abuse, now a former fundraiser has come forward, revealing Nessel threatened her with a PPO just for contacting her a couple times!Yikes.That's why Nessel has already shuffled through 10 different campaign managers and spokesmen.For the record, if she indeed did have a penis (she promotes the fact she evidently does not have one as a reason to vote for her) the media would be MUCH tougher on her erratic and unstable behavior! Imagine how her opponent, Speaker Tom Leonard, would be treated if he did these things?!According to Kyle Melinn and MIRS:"Democratic Attorney General nominee Dana NESSEL threatened one of her former fundraisers, who is now advocating for independent candidate Chris GRAVELINE, with a personal protection order (PPO) if she did not stop contacting her on her personal email and phone.

Maggie LOURDES, a Plymouth-based attorney, said she emailed Nessel twice to encourage her to debate Graveline before the Nov. 6 general election when she received a response Sunday morning reading, "I am kindly asking you to cease and desist contacting me via my personal email and phone. I no longer wish to have contact with you at this juncture. ". . . I am asking you not to send messages to my personal accounts at this point. I believe the intent is to harass, annoy and other such conduct prohibited by the stalking laws in Michigan.

"If any candidate for office wishes to convey a particular sentiment related to the AG race, a formal representative of that candidate can contact my campaign in their official capacity, but I am requesting that you no longer contact me directly.

"If you choose not to abide by my request, I will seek a Personal Protective Order in the Wayne County Circuit Court," Nessel wrote from her campaign email address. Nessel campaign did not respond to a question from MIRS as to what spurred this response to Lourdes and if the former staffer's description was accurate.

Lourdes wrote on the Facebook page of Republican Attorney General nominee Tom LEONARD on Sunday that "Dangerous Dana" had blocked her from her campaign Twitter and Facebook page. She then noted the PPO threat.

"I am starting to think maybe this woman isn't fit to be Michigan's top cop," Lourdes wrote. "Seems a bit heavy handed and maybe even 'abusive, crazy, chaotic and toxic.'" The reference is to last month's MIRS article about Nessel going through at least 20 campaign staffers during her campaign. The article quoted from four former staffers - two on the record - about the campaign's allegedly toxic environment (See "Nessel, 4th Campaign Manager Part Ways Amid 'Toxic' Work Environmental Claims," 9/14/18).

Lourdes was paid by the campaign $3,000 a month from January-April of earlier this year, according to campaign finance records. MIRS also found record of a Traverse City fundraiser for Nessel that Lourdes organized. Contacted today, Lourdes declined to talk about her time with the campaign.

She did tell MIRS she's never been involved with a campaign before the Nessel campaign and likely will not get involved again after the Graveline campaign is over. Lourdes said she's been an attorney for the last 20 years and an adjunct professor.

"This is a grossly disqualifying display of an abusive temperament," she wrote in an email to MIRS about the email she received Sunday."

Michigan Democrats may have reached a new low: attacking State Rep. Jeff Noble for missing a debate because he was helping his sick wife in the hospital!

Noble, a Pastor before entering the legislature, is in a heated re-election battle in Wayne County that could help determine who controls the Michigan House in 2019.

Yep, the geniuses at MDP actually sent out a mailer about this "issue"...The controversy exploded on social media after a Facebook post by Samantha Bell, a Noble supporter.

"Here's what the Michigan Democratic Party isn't telling you," Bell said. "State Rep. Pastor Jeff Nobleis a wonderful father and husband, a beloved faithful pastor and an excellent state representative. He puts his family FIRST. Anyone with a brain knows that Jeff Noble isn't afraid of debating his Democratic opponent. Jeff would rather be with his family at his wife's bedside in the hospital than debating the insensitive #MIDems that created this ignorant, misinformed and disgusting post. This is low blow, even for the #MIDems. If you're trying to fire up the Michigan Republican Party then keep attacking Republican candidates for spending time with their families."MDP Chair Brandon Dillon owes the Noble family an apology, PERIOD.

Check Out The Post Below:

__________________________________________________________________Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

123 missing kids have been rescued in Wayne County after a historic law enforcement sweep involving raids from multiple agencies at the federal, state, and local level.Many of the victims are believed to have been used as sex slaves in human trafficking operations.More details are expected in the weeks and months ahead...

According to the Detroit Free Press:"A one-day sweep by multiple law enforcement agencies in Wayne County resulted in the recovery of 123 missing children, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.The sweep, dubbed Operation MISafeKid and conducted on Sept. 26, involved the Detroit Missing Child Recovery Unit of the U.S. Marshals Sex Offender Investigations Branch coordinated with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — Office of Inspector General, Michigan State Police and law enforcement officers from other Wayne County agencies.The effort in particular was aimed at locating victims of sex trafficking.

During the one-day operation, out of 301 case files, 123 children were identified and recovered safely. "Three cases were identified as being possible sex trafficking cases, and one homeless teen was transported back to the command post after it was discovered that he had not had anything to eat in three days. He was then debriefed and turned over to Child Protective Services for aftercare," the U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release."

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Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.